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Exception Processes

Date: March 4, 2014Author: Jeff

Exception Processes happen whenever an enterprise has to process a transaction that can’t be handled by its Factory Process. The usual culprit is that the submitter of the transaction (e.g. customer, taxpayer, etc) does so in a fashion that is not handled in the Factory Process.

In this previous post, I described several situations where this could occur and why. The next decision for the enterprise is what they’re going to do.

Acquiescing to unruly customer behavior may be the path of least resistance but that’s not helping your enterprise maximize its profits. The Factory Process is in place because it’s the least expensive way to process the transaction. Anything else you do will only drive costs upward.

In the prior post, I described real reasons why customer could not conform. In those cases and due to the high volume of transactions, a permanent exception process needs to be implemented. The alternative is to forego the revenue.

However, the enterprise has a worthy goal to eliminate these exception processes. This is done using a customer education campaign and fees for continued unruly behavior.

The education campaign should be applied first. Tell your customers how their unruly behavior drives up costs and therefore prices. Describe the systems you have put in place that allows them to access the Factory Process and help them convert to using them.

Next, consider eliminating stimuli that encourage unruly behavior. Get rid of the return coupons from your statements, including those on the statements you email to them. Place the URL for your payment website prominently of your billing correspondence. This will discourage paper check payments and encourage electronic check payments.

The next step in changing customer behavior might be to introduce fees for unruly behavior or discounts for desired behavior.